Youth Organizations {Cont.}

[Page 280]

Hashomer Hatzair

by Dr. Chaim Wolgryn

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

In the year 1913, during the Czarist regime, in our city an organization was
established called Hashomer, whose origins were in
Galicia, and was a scout movement filled with
Zionist and Hebrew education. The following were amongst the founders of this
organization: Lucek Rechtman, Iszek Broner, Yakob Erlich, Mosze Grosman, Lolek
Gali (killed), Maks Zmigrod (survived) and others. The activity, which was
illegal, took place in the attic of Duwidl Zmigrod's house in Slawkowska Street
(later Kołłątaja).

During the period of the First World War, when Będzin was under German
occupation, from 1915, Hashomer became legal, as did
most of the Jewish organizations and even the
socialistic ones, came out in the open, and developed as an important activity
in the world at large, and within the confines of the same house.

Almost all the school youth joined Hashomer. The following
activists stood out: Jozek Abramzon, Lolek Glik, Pinchas Berlach, Aron Hampel
and Esther Lasker (died), who organized the first youth battalion in Zagłębie
close to Hashomer and was under its management
(Druzynowa), Icek Birncwajg, Jakob Lasker (both of them in Israel) and others.

In the year 1918 Hashomer was disbanded in our city and received
the name Hashomer Hatzair, that was organized in Poland, although the Będzin
ken [center] did not join the national movement and remained independent.

The disbandment of Hashomer brought a crisis to the
ken: the new Hashomer Hatzair
organization was weakened, and its files and activists were taken when
it was transferred to a small apartment in the house belonging to Mrs. Broder
in Modrzejowska Street. The ken was composed of two troops, boys and girls
separately. Each troop was divided into three to four detachments, according to age, and in each
detachment there were single groups, each one numbering up to fifteen people.
The principal activity took place in the groups that would carry out meetings,
two to three times a week. Once a month, the detachments met up and more
infrequently  the two troops of girls and boys would meet, which were in
fact meetings of the whole ken.

Education in Hashomer Hatzair was in a national  Land of Israel spirit.
However, over time additional foreign elements infiltrated its lines and even assimilation, which
began undermining the Zionist foundations. At times a quiet war was
carried out between the group leaders not only on movement ideology, in the
field of training and education, but also in the language that the activities
were carried out. There were groups who carried out their activities in Yiddish
and in Polish and also in Hebrew. The friction did not add, naturally, to the
consolidation of the ken, and in addition they were forbidden, and to
our surprise, a number of leaders amongst them Heniek Horowicz, the ken
leader, that were suspected of communism and were expelled from the place  hence
the disintegration of the ken wasn't long in coming.

During this period, emissaries of the central leadership of the Hashomer
Hatzair movement came to us in order to convince the ken
to join the national movement, however, they did not succeed in their
mission because of ideological reasons. The young people in the
ken were for joining, however the seniors were against
and they tipped the scale.

The arrest of the older leaders of the ken was exploited by the
house owner as an excuse to get rid of us without a problem, as she
had wanted for some time, and this brought an end to the existence of the ken,
although even after this, meetings of certain groups would take place in various
locations and in private apartments.

I will recall names of our leaders, group and detachment leaders, who for the
most did not survive: Anczel Wajcenberg, Adasz Wajnberg (killed), Chaim
Borzykowski (survived), Hendel Rotner (presently in America), Berisz Salomon,
Jankel Frajberger (both in Israel), Heniek Frenkel (presently in Belgium),
Manja Lasker-Rotner, Dorka Hampel-Lasker and Baszka Zmigrod-Rodzyn (killed) and
others that I haven't mentioned.

Three years passed without an organization, and we the graduates who grew up
feeling that we were lacking a ken, decided to rebuild it
and make contact with the national movement. We, a group of young people:
Brothers Icek and Heniek Frenkel, Mendek Goldszer, Kilsztok, Sztrochlic, and
others together with a group of older youths: Rela Herciger (presently in Israel),
Dorka Hampel (killed), Adela Sandiszew-Taler, Riwa Fefer-Tabacznik, Mosze Baum,
Szajndl Rotenberg-Ilan (the four of them in Israel) and others, managed to organize
a reasonable size group of working and learning youths and after great efforts we
began the routine activities under our leadership. We also managed to get hold of
a place for our ken in the new home of the late Chaim Szajn
in Malachowskiego Street. Activities were renewed and we even took part in the
divisional activities that were organized on behalf of the regional administration,
which was originally in Kielce and later in Częstochowa. I remember, that Kuba
Rozenberg (survived, emigrated to Israel, worked as a doctor and passed away
in the prime of his life) and Hilik Grinberg organized activities in our region on behalf of
central administration in Warsaw.

The first regional meeting that was organized by Artek Friszman from Kielce,
took place in the Jewish high school building and the Będzin ken
participated. This meeting served as an impetus to the further
development of our organization.

This was the state of affairs following the world conference of Hashomer Hatzair
in Urutki. We sent two delegates to the movement council in Warsaw,
which took place in order to discuss decisions made at the world conference,
the principal ones being: a socialist classification, pioneering realization by
making aliya [emigrating] to the Land of Israel and living
in a kibbutz.

When our delegates returned from the council to our ken
and passed on the decisions of the world conference, heated debates
began, that brought about a serious crisis in the ken
and even to its division. Those against the decisions of the world
conference gave the reason for their resistance, that it was impossible to
receive kibbutz life as the only way to realization and also the socialist
classification was liable to give the movement a communist orientation. These
differences of opinion caused a division in the ken, some
of the members left and later joined Hashomer Haleumi
[National Guard] (1929).

In this way, the ken of Hashomer Hatzair
in our city lost members along the way and in the main  the
important leaders. Only with spirited organizational effort did we manage to
extend our ranks once again, and bring in a large number of students, most
being from the Yavne gymnasia.

The ken was delivered from the impasse, stood the
realization test and a large number of graduates made
aliya, after they had undergone training in the Planti
kibbutz that was located in Slonim, and joined three groups of older
kibbutzim  Merhavia, Mishmar Ha'emek and Ramat Yohanan. Some of them
continue kibbutz life to this day.

During the Second World War, as well, under difficult conditions, the ken
in Będzin continued to develop and bloom and drew in many young people.
Only a few survived and went to live in Israel, amongst them Hajka Klinger (now
in Kibbutz Haogen), who told us of terrible stories, that we didn't know about
up till now (this subject is presented in the Holocaust section of this book
 the Editors).

Finally, we commune with the dear memories of our sisters Edzja and Lea
Pejsachson, who labored intensively in the camps and in the underground to
purchase weapons and transfer them to the Jewish ghetto in Będzin and fell in
the line of duty. May the memories of the holy Hashomer Hatzair
members be blessed and deeply engraved in our hearts.

[Page 281]

Hashachar [The Dawn] organization

by Mordechai Hampel

Translated by Lance Ackerfeld

The Hashachar youth organization was founded in 1918 at the
initiative of the Tzeirei Zion [Young Zionists] political party,
and its aim was to educate its members towards a nationalist spirit. The elite
of the Tzeirei Zion party members were made available to the
Hashachar organization for training and guidance: Mosze Kaminer, of
blessed memory, a talented youth, who died at an early age; Aron Hampel, of
blessed memory, whose social activities were well known in the city during the
decades before the Holocaust; Dawid Zajtman, of blessed memory, had literary
talents, though he also lost his life at a young age; Majer Goszlani (Golani),
(now in Israel), Mosze Lejb Kozlowski who lives in America and Dawid Liwer
(Israel) and others.

When the Zionist Labor party Hitachdut was founded at the
conference in Prague in 1920, as a result of the merge between Tzeirei
Zion with Hapoel Hatzair, the party in Będzin was weakened,
since it underwent an organizational and ideological crisis and there were even
symptoms of division in the Hashachar organization, but the members
of this association did not disperse, rather they regrouped, without
relinquishing their former name, and defined themselves as a independent
organization.

The General Zionists who did not have their own youth organization, hoped to
build up the Hashachar organization and made their residence and
other services available to them, in Jeszaja Hendel Erlich's house, in
Kołłątaja Street without payment, however for this the Hashachar
organization agreed to the patron committee the use of General Zionist emblems,
and the leader, Abram Ptaznik (now in Brazil).

Haschachar was only a local organization, without branches or a
center, though in Warsaw there was an organization with the same name with
Revisionist leanings, that tried making contact with Hashachar in
Będzin, however the unification proposal was deferred by it.

At the beginning of 1924, when the residence was transferred to Solomon
Gutman's house, several locals approached the leaders of Hashachar,
who helped out in the Hashomer Hatzair organization, since they
were attracted by this youth movement, before it affiliated with the political
ideology of the Ha'artzi Kibbutz movement in Israel. For this
reason the late Kuba Rozenberg from Hashomer Hatzair in Warsaw (he
worked as a doctor in Kupat Holim [Health fund] in Tel Aviv and
passed way in the prime of life) came to Będzin. A joint committee was elected
whose goal was to start carrying out activities, though this didn't come about
for reasons that will not be outlined in this article. Members of the
Garin [nucleus group] (most of who were killed) were dispersed
between the other youth organizations, apart from my friend, Dr. Chaim Wolgryn
(now in Tel Aviv, active in the Doctors' Association in Israel and the
Kupat Holim Doctors' Organization), who later managed to establish
a Hashomer Hatzair center in our city, who battled extensively for
his existence for the first two years because of leftist inclinations and a
lack of leaders, however in the end, it made headway and a bright era was
recorded during the period of the Nazi occupation and underground in Będzin.

[Page 282]

The writer of this article, who still as a student of the gymnasia, was amongst
the members of Hashachar, became its leader and ran it for a period
of two years. During that period Hashachar prospered and was active
in every direction. Cultural activity and general political education took
place and an impressive library existed.

Since the organization was non-political, all the parties eagerly sent their
members to lecture there in the hope that they would be influenced and people
would be enticed into their ranks. Indeed, members of Hashachar
leaned towards all the Zionist parties with all their viewpoints and
ideologies, and were later active in them, for example: the members Fiszel
Zygrajch and Berysz Liwer in the Hitachdut party, Gicel Bryner and
Mosze Baum in the Hashomer Haleumi, Aron Frajberg, Mirjam
Najman-Frajberg and Tobiasz Baum in the Poalei Zion party and in
Freiheit  Dror (all seven of these are in Israel) Abram
Joskierowicz (killed) and in Brit- Trumpeldor and the writer of
this article in Gordonia.

I hereby mention a number of outstanding members of Hashachar: the
Moszinski brothers, Fejwel Skornicki, Szlomo Nymerk, Szlomo Fiszel, Gerszon
Kerner, Jakob Dawid Lustiger, Szimon Sakura, Aba Grauer, Abram Fuks, Majer
Berliner, Eliezer Manela (all of them were killed), Aron Waltfrajd, Mordechai
Herszlikowicz and Kopel Grochowina (the three of them in Israel), Israel
Szpajzer (passed away in Israel) and others.

When I joined Gordonia, Israel Brafman was head of
Hashachar, and after a short time died in the prime of his life.
Abram Birman followed as head of Hashachar (now in Israel), however
when he left for advanced training and went to live in Israel the organization
was utterly weakened.

With the departure of a number of members from Hashachar in 1933,
who were in favor of uniting with Poalei Zion Social Zionists and
with the founding of a new party in Będzin called Social Zionists
Organization, whose residence was in Plesner House (near the bridge
leading to Dąbrowa), almost all of the Hashachar members joined
this party, and this brought an end to Hashachar, that was
liquidated after fifteen years of existence.

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